LHA Conference 2019
Day 1
It's Normal
Day 2
Iowa Refresher
Day 3
Pies and Poles
Day 4
Sandhills Art
Day 5
Return to Elk Mountain
Day 6
More Pies
Day 7
Bus Tour One
Day 8
Presentation Day
Day 9
Bus Tour Two
Day 10
Vistas Galore
Day 11
Clowns Abound
Day 12
Into California
Day 13
10-76, 10-23
Day 14
Museum, Museum, Museum
Day 15
Southwest Refresh
Day 16
Starting 70
Day 17
Enchanted
Day 18
Hello Earthlings
Day 19
A Day in OK
Day 20
Two Porters in a Storm
Day 21
Memphis Sidetrack
July 3, 2019 (day 21)
After a semi-spontaneous stop in Memphis, I returned to US-70 for a bit
before declaring this trip over. I spent Independence Day on the road but
the sight seeing was done.
July 2, 2019 (day 20)
I decided to continue on US-70 with brief stops in Hot Springs and Little
Rock. But, when rain hit well short of Brinkley, I moved to I-40 to finish
the day.
July 1, 2019 (day 19)
Although I got confused over whether to 70 B or not to 70 B, I did
make it in and eventually out of Oklahoma.
June 30, 2019 (day 18)
Once I made it to Texas, I was welcomed to Earth then ended the day in
Vernon.
June 29, 2019 (day 17)
A big bird and a big nut. Ice cream, two breweries, mounds of sand and
lots of aliens. It's a real hodgepodge, I tell you.
June 28, 2019 (day 16)
I had picked US-70 to give some structure to my journey home and found its
western terminus in Globe, Arizona, where I was warmly received.
June 27, 2019 (day 15)
Breakfast was at a new-to-me restaurant but the rest of the day was spent
refreshing memories of places I've been before. Things like towers and
flying saucers and the Center of the World.
June 26, 2019 (day 14)
The grandsons and I spent a day in Balboa Park looking over cars, trains,
and photographs.
June 25, 2019 (day 13)
I enjoyed breakfast with a bonus egg and an evening watching my son
perform admirably on a city-wide call-in radio program. A visit with the
whole family filled the afternoon.
June 24, 2019 (day 12)
The day started out quite dead but ended on a bright note.
June 23, 2019 (day 11)
The day included a pretty cool sunrise, then breakfast, brothels, and a
brewery, but I ended up with clowns.
June 22, 2019 (day 10)
I found a new favorite highway in US-191. Great views, a little snow, an
arch bridge, a couple log cabins, and one dam.
June 21, 2019 (day 9)
A little Little America, a lot of Evanston, plus some Fort Bridger and
Green River, too. The conference's final day was a full one.
June 20, 2019 (day 8)
A full day of interesting presentations took place in a theater with a
full sized Triceratops guarding the entrance. The awards banquet was
hardly smooth but, as Beatrice Massey said a century ago of her own
Lincoln Highway adventure, "It Might Have Been Worse".
June 19, 2019 (day 7)
The eastern tour went straight to Fort Steele then stopped at Sinclair and
Point of Rocks on the way back.
June 18, 2019 (day 6)
Before driving west to the conference, I drove east to the pies with a
cool surprise meeting along the way.
June 17, 2019 (day 5)
Clouds that brought occasional rain made the sky a real show. I ended the
day with my second visit to a delightful establishment on a one time
alternate Lincoln Highway alignment.
June 16, 2019 (day 4)
I drove an entire Nebraska byway to visit an art installation that had
been on my to-do list for years.
June 15, 2019 (day 3)
I watched the pies arrive at Niland's and drove a named road end-to-end
but missed out on refueling at one of my favorite gas stations.
June 14, 2019 (day 2)
Most of what I saw today was semi-familiar but I did find a new-to-me
restaurant in the middle of the day.
June 13, 2019 (day 1)
A day that started out gray, wet, and blustery in Cincinnati ended up in
Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, blue, dry, and blustery. Two out of three's
not bad.
Prelude - May 7, 2019
I knew it would be tight to do three conferences this year. Just deal with
"one at a time" I told myself. It turned out, though, that
actually keeping them separate just wasn't possible. Conference #1
(Jefferson Highway) wasn't quite over when someone mentioned that the
deadline for conference #2 (Society for Commercial Archeology) was very
near. So was the cutoff for early registration pricing for this
conference. I was still traveling when the deadlines hit, but I managed to
narrowly beat both from the road.
The relief I felt was short lived. When I began to really plan the two conference trips, I quickly realized that they were not nearly as independent as I thought. I'd felt safe in the thought that one was near the beginning of June and the other near the end. Then a closer look showed that just nine days separated the end of one and the start of the other. A two day drive home from the first has essentially no slack and four days looks to be the minimum required to reach the second. The leisurely drive around Lake Michigan I was starting to plot was off the table. There will barely be enough time to do laundry and repack the cooler.